Belts are will known in the clothing arts, particularly for use girding a waist of an individual to hold various different clothing items tight to the body of the individual. One common use for belts is routing them through a series of belt loops in clothing of a type having such belt loops adjacent to a top hem thereof (or at other locations, such as a waist of a dress, where a belt is to be accommodated). For instance, pants are often configured with a top hem configured to surround a waist of the wearer. A fly is often formed in the top hem to allow the top hem to be altered in diameter while an individual is putting on the pants. Similarly, skirts are sometimes formed with a top hem and fly in a manner similar to pants. Such pants or other similar clothing often include belt loops adjacent the top hem to receive a belt. The belt is routed through each of the belt loops and passes entirely around a waist of the user and is fastened back to itself. When the belt is tightened, it holds the top hem of the garment tight to the wearer, keeping the garment securely in place.
One less common type of belt that is known in the prior art does not pass entirely around the waist of a wearer, but rather only joins portions of the top hem together. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,397 to Scott; U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,594 to Young; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,607,156 to Godshaw each teach belts for pants that interact with belt loops on the pants, but which do not go entirely around the waist of the pants utilizing all of the belt loops. Rather, these shortened belts wrap around two belt loops separately and join back to the belt. The belt also separately extends between those two belt loops, joining them together in an adjustable fashion.
These shortened belts taught by Scott, Young and Godshaw each extend around the belt loop and then attach back to the belt before extending to form a complete circuit. In essence, the belts have at least two adjustable circuits with each of the circuits themselves wrapping around belt loops on the pants. Such an arrangement enhances a complexity of such a shortened belt and enhances the difficulty with which such a shortened belt can be attached and detached from the various different belt loops of the pants. Hence, such shortened belt configurations are typically provided in a permanently attached fashion to the pants, rather than being removably attachable so that the belt can be used on various different clothing items. Also, the fasteners utilized are not as secure as is required for many adult users, or for particularly large or heavy garments. Accordingly, a need exists for a short belt which can be easily routed through two adjacent belt loops and close back to itself to form a single circuit and hold the two adjacent belt loops closely to each other to tighten the pants in a simple and secure fashion.